Rowayat seeks original writing for upcoming online publications. Submission categories are Fiction, CNF, Poetry, Flash Fiction, Comics, Art, Reviews and Interviews - in English or French or Arabic in translation. Contributors do not need to identify as Arab/SWANA descent, provided their work is in dialogue with the transnational social realities of the Afro/Arab regions and their diaspora communities. Contributors may also decide to expand this reality altogether.

Rowayat accepts unsolicited submissions of poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction during our reading periods. We accept simultaneous submissions, but please notidy us as soon as your submission is accepted elsewhere. We aim to respond within 3 months.

Our review process is semi-anonymous (our readers do not know the names of submitters, and then they pass all submissions to the genre editors. You may submit to more than one genre (but only one submission per genre—thank you!).

Submit Now to Rowayat's 2025 Poetry Contest August 1st to August 31st, 2025

About the Judge: 

Sara Elkamel is a poet, journalist, and translator based in Cairo. She holds an MA in arts journalism from Columbia University and an MFA in poetry from New York University. Elkamel is a Pushcart Prize winner and was a winner in the Redivider’s 2021 Blurred Genre Contest. She was also awarded the Southeast Review’s 2023 Gearhart Poetry Prize, the Michigan Quarterly Review's 2022 Goldstein Poetry Prize, and the Tinderbox Poetry Journal’s 2022 Brett Elizabeth Jenkins Poetry Prize. She is the author of the chapbook, Field of No Justice (African Poetry Book Fund & Akashic Books, 2021), and her work in translation includes Mona Kareem’s chapbook, I Will Not Fold These Maps (Poetry Translation Centre, 2023), and Dalia Taha’s collection of poetry, Enter World (Graywolf Press, 2026). 

Elkamel is drawn to fragmented, narrative-rich lyric poetry, surreal motifs, and translations. Her taste is eclectic, and she is eager to be surprised!